Why learn Spanish with a private teacher?

Hola! If you want to learn Spanish -which you might since you are here :)- you must be considering joining a class group or taking private lessons with a tutor, am I right?

It’s not that I’m a private teacher – well, it is a little, you know…- it’s that I have reasons to believe that taking private lessons is the best choice when you want to really improve and do it fast.

Let me explain.

Why learn Spanish with a private teacher?

Commitment

Psychologists and coaches say this is the keyword to any kind of improvement: commitment. That is why personal development courses and coaching programs tend to be very expensive -the money you pay “symbolizes” your degree of commitment, if you know what I mean. Also, when you work privately with someone who’s investing energy in your process, your commitment improves because of this human trait that proves we are more likely to succeed when other people are involved in what we are doing.

Let see all these with examples:

I am doing a masters in personal development at the moment (this is real) and it cost me a good amount of money. I’m very interested in the topic and really believe it is good for me, so I’m never ever missing any class and I’m not only attending the seminars, but I’m also very focus and commited.

On the other hand, I was also interested in my College degree when I was studying at university a few years ago but I missed classes often or just ignored the professors when there… Yes, I was younger, but also yes: I wasn’t paying for my tuition.

I know this may sound horrible, but there are studies that prove this is the way we human work.

Regarding the second part of my statement before, let’s observe how important it is to commit to someone when we want to succeed. Think about going somewhere you really want to go or doing something that’s important to you.

Imagine you want to go to a langague exchange meeting, but no one wants to go with you. How many weeks go by without you going? Or imagine you want to go Vietnam and motorbike the country while visiting all the small villages… How many years would go by before you finally decide to go do it alone?

That’s all, your honour.

Fast improvement

When you study anything one-to-one, chances are you improve much, much faster. All the time in the session is focused on you and your needs.

You do not need to wait on somebody else’s answers or adapt to the level of a group. Private lessons are more effective when you are goal orientated basically because the tutor focuses all the energy in you and you have no choice but to be focused.

Self designed process

Also, when you sing up to private classes, you have the chance to design your onw process of learning, meaning the teaching is adapted to your needs and goals. There’s no need to follow a program which might be useful for you in part and uninteresting in some other parts.

When it comes to learning a language, we now know it is impossible to make someone fit complety in study programs designed for a specific level and a general student. Everyone has different needs, interests, ways of learning, difficulties and abilities to learn some topics faster.

When learn Spanish with a private teacher?

So now, if you want to know wether a private tutor is the best choice for you or not, keep reading.

You should learn Spanish with a private tutor if:

You have a specific goal (learn Spanish for your work, you are moving to a Spanish speaking country, you usually travel to Spain, you have a Spanish speaking partner, etc).

Learning Spanish is very important for you now. Remember what we discussed about commitment; if you really want to commit to learning, find a private tutor. Moreover, she or he will try their best to keep you motivated if they really like what they do (and you :P).

You need/want to improve fast. A customized process with someone focusing on you will push you faster to reach your goals.

You need/want to work on specific topics or learn in various interesting ways. On group classes a program is often followed and the classes are previously designed and repeted group after group. When learning with a private tutor you get a vote on what’s taught and how. Well, basically, your vote is the one that matters.

You need flexibility because of your changing schedules or busy life. Private teachers often have the chance to adapt better to you.

That’s it so far. Esto es todo por ahora.

So if you were wondering wether to start studying with a group or with a private tutor, now you if the latter would be the best option for you and your circumstances.